ATL Isn't Crazy In Drafting Penix

[RobertWeathers]

If they had concerns over Cousins's achillies they shouldn't have committed so much in guaranteed $.

Should have drafted skill position players and a QB in the mid rounds.

 

[XLIX]

In fact Atlanta was in prime position to take Rome Odunze at #8 as well. So they could have given Cousins another big time weapon and instead... draft his replacement?

I wish I could have been in the Bears draft room. They probably felt Odunze to Atlanta was a lock so they were deciding among Fashanu or Bowers....

 

[condon84]

I think Penix is going to be the best QB in this draft after all is said and done. It'll end up working out for them.

 

[Patsgofor4]

Sorry, but disagree. I kind of get your logic if they picked Penix in the 25-30 range but not with PICK EIGHT, especially in a draft with significant talent drop-off in the mid to late teens, by most accounts.

 

[oldrover]

Imagine how Cousins felt, watching the draft unfold

Please. He can go cry in a bagful of guaranteed money.

Penix is the one screwed. 24, has to sit at least two years when he’s ready now, or ready-ish.

And Blank too! Dude is 81… and you’re hedging your bet on a $100 mil contract? You think you might need a new QB in two years? Or less? So you forget about winning now?

If there’s a reason to do that, their medical team should be fired.

Boy… Blank blew it when he didn’t hire BB.

 

[varjao]

They have good pieces on offense, get a functional QB, have the chance to add a premium player on defense or load up even more the offense, and between these 2 scenarios get nothing.

It was a bad call I'm sorry, when you make a deal like they did signing cousins it has to change the decisions you make in the future. It's like a marriage. It's different from GB drafting love because AR was on his way out.

That division is up for grabs, once you make to the playoffs anything can happen. Obviously you have to have an eye in the future but that was not a good fit in my view.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

By all accounts Cousins sounds like a decent human being that has had a very strange career. Starting out by getting drafted to be RG3's backup, bookended with Atl drafting Penix to ultimately push Cousins to the back up role. In between, he has made a crazy amount of money for being a better than average QB.

 

[captain stone]

ATL drafted Penix at 8 after signing Cousins to a $160M 4-year contract ($100M) guaranteed.

Are they nuts?

Nope!
======
Consider this scenario. The coach tells the owner that he believes that ATL has the best team in the Division and will be competitive to win the division for the foreseeable future, well unit someone one else becomes competitive in this very weak division.

The owner asks the obvious. He wants to know what will hold ATL back, and what we can do to help during this draft.

ANSWERS
1) Now that we have Cousins, the highest risk to success is if Cousins misses games. My solution is to draft a QB who can is a top QB and can step in immediately if Cousins goes down. Who did you have in mind? Penix!
2) Also, we need to bring in a couple of top DL's.

STATUS
8 Penix
35 Orhorhoro
74 Trice

Jeremiah had both the linemen in the low 40's.

CONCLUSION
IMO, ATL is much better off now than a week ago.








CONC

They are indeed not crazy; just incredibly ****ing stupid.

 

[Patsgofor4]

NFL execs unfiltered on all 16 NFC teams' draft classes: What were the Falcons thinking?

There was plenty of consternation for the Falcons' process, praise for the Eagles and debate about the Bears' and Vikings' approaches.

theathletic.com

“How you could go through free agency and think to yourself, ‘Penix is our guy, but let’s give $100 million to Kirk Cousins just in case Penix doesn’t fall to us at 8’?” an exec said. “Come on, man.”

Consternation over the Falcons trading up in the second round for defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro when, as one exec put it, “they had the guy from Illinois (Johnny Newton), who is a perfect fit for Raheem Morris’ defense as a three-technique, sitting on the board,” could not compare to the furor over the Cousins/Penix decision.

“There’s only one thing I could think of that would allow them to do that, and is that something happened in Kirk’s rehab (from a torn Achilles tendon) between when he signed and draft day that made them feel like, ‘Oh my god, we might not have him for more than a year,'” another exec said.

There’s no indication that happened.

“People say they can get out of Kirk’s deal after two years, which is basically saying, ‘Well, we expect him to fail, so we can get rid of the contract after ’25, but you don’t get to think that way when you’re putting $100 million into Kirk Cousins,” the exec added.

Attempts to find execs supporting the move proved futile.

“What if you are in minicamp and Cousins isn’t even taking snaps and you are like, ‘Oh my God, let’s go with Michael Penix,'” another exec said. “Because remember, moving Cousins is much more difficult than it would be to move Penix. You could be stuck with Cousins when you know Penix is the guy.”

Other execs noted that current Falcons director of player personnel Ryan Pace was the Bears’ GM in 2017 when the team signed quarterback Mike Glennonto a surprisingly expensive deal six weeks before Chicago traded from No. 3 to No. 2 for quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Glennon earned $18.5 million for four starts. Cousins’ deal guarantees him $90 million over the next two seasons.

“I really like Penix, but if you are going to draft him, why would you not have taken Justin Fields from Chicago or signed Russell Wilson and then drafted Penix?” an exec said. “No one would fault you for that. They would have been much better off with money invested elsewhere. And the thing about Penix is, he is ready to play now. He is not the rookie QB that needs to wait.”

Execs tied the Penix decision to other questionable top-10 draft moves under GM Terry Fontenot, led by drafting tight end Kyle Pitts at No. 4 in 2021.

“Remember, the reason they went with Raheem Morris instead of Bill Belichick (as head coach) was because he would not push back against the front office,” another exec said. “The two teams that rejected Belichick did the opposite of what Bill would have done, and that includes New England drafting Drake Maye.”

Execs rejected the thinking that Atlanta needed to snag a quarterback of the future now because the team could be picking much later in 2025.

“I’d love to know what the conversations were in Atlanta leading up to that and why there was no adult supervision,” a former GM said. “Truth be told, they could be good next year with Kirk Cousins, come away with the 25th or 26th pick, and then you take a quarterback in that range. That is what Green Bay did with Jordan Love, and it is fundamentally different from what Atlanta just did.”

 

[Wozzy]

The goal of all 32 teams should be to win a ring. Having the best tandem of QB’s doesn’t do that, especially with a middling defense… you can only play one.

By the time Cousins gives this job back to Penix he’ll almost be out the door. The draft and off-season is about team building, not just picking players. It’s another season of middling for Atlanta.

 

[Patsgofor4]

Sorry, but disagree. I kind of get your logic if they picked Penix in the 25-30 range but not with PICK EIGHT, especially in a draft with significant talent drop-off in the mid to late teens, by most accounts.

“I’d love to know what the conversations were in Atlanta leading up to that and why there was no adult supervision,” a former GM said. “Truth be told, they could be good next year with Kirk Cousins, come away with the 25th or 26th pick, and then you take a quarterback in that range. That is what Green Bay did with Jordan Love and it is fundamentally different from what Atlanta just did.”

I like the way this former GM thinks.

 

[Sicilian]

They're trying have their cake and eat it too, and in the process will end up dropping the cake on the floor. They'll compete just enough to maybe win their division, then get ousted by Philly, San Fran, LA, Dallas, etc. Then by the time they hand over to Penix, they'll have missed out on his rookie deal, for a kid who's going to turn 25 early in his first season. If they had taken someone like JJ at 8, it still would have been silly, but at least that's a young DEVELOPMENTAL QB, who would need a couple years to learn behind Cousins anyway. If Penix pans out, you're wasting good years of him because your team building philosophy was stuck in no man's land.

 

[stinkypete]

Penix was speculatively linked to Atlanta for a hot minute maybe a month before the draft, but it was a quick take that people seem to have forgotten about, so I was less shocked when it happened. I don't hate it.

Cousins' guarantees really only impact the cap for two years. So there is some funny money in that contract. He is a low-ceiling, win now option, but the contract indicates the team is not serious about him starting long-term.

The Ringer ran charting statistics for the top 8 or so QBs. They mapped out accuracy at short, middle and long throws, and to the left, center and right sides of the field. Penix charted very poorly in certain parts of the field (I forget which, can't find the link). This was how I talked myself out of liking Penix. That said, if the team thinks he is coachable in this area, then a plan to sit might be necessary.